For Good
by FlameOfIllumination
Summary: Glinda uses her brains and it all ends very differently. Gelphie.   Musicalverse


**Mostly musical verse, with maybe a hint of bookverse. I had a lot of trouble getting into Glinda's head, which is why this is written differently, and for the the musical universe. **

Glinda the Good, formerly, (or maybe still) Galinda Upland of the Arduenna Clan, was a lot of things.

She was vain, she was proud, she was brave, and she was excitable. She was silly and she was young.

But unobservant? Especially about something near and dear to her heart? No. Would someone as unobservant as she pretended to be, really remember a green bottle, unremarkable in all ways but color? Would someone lacking in intelligence really remember, word for word and inflection for inflection, something cruel a teacher said to her?

So although her fears and flightiness had allowed her to believe the scene she only saw shadows of, her more sensible self emerged when alone, about to confront the wizard.

Elphaba, melted by a pail of water? Elphaba, whose hair always smelt like lilies? Elphaba, whose green skin glistened as she emerged from her bath wrapped modestly in a robe?

So after confronting the wizard, (another scene caused by her attention to detail), after banishing Madam Morrible and allowing herself a moment to bask in the glory of being the ruler of the realm, Glinda excused herself, and using the bubble that dear Elphaba had mocked, she flew back to Kiamo Ko.

The tower was quiet and lonely, deserted. Glinda glanced around. The ground was marked with boots, the boots of the guards of Kiamo Ko, loyal to the Prince from the Vinkus. Where they'd gone, with Prince dead and the Witch gone, none knew and fewer cared. Glinda glanced upwards, shivering as a cold wind blasted through the courtyard.

Squaring her shoulders, and telling herself determinedly that Glinda the Good had no reason to fear anywhere in all of Oz, she entered and climbed the familiar stairs to the tower room where Elphie, Elphaba Thropp, the Wicked Witch of the West, had said her goodbyes.

Heedlessly, she flung open the door to the tower. It was just as it had been in those moments as she and Elphie had said goodbye.

It took only moments for her to work out the trick. To think her best and dearest friend had been scant inches way as she'd cried. Glinda blushed. _She must have thought me an idiot, taken in so easily._

Glinda glanced around. Not a sound intruded on the peace of the tower. Glinda sighed and sat down on the trap door.

"Elphaba Thropp I should slap you. Shake you and slap you and hit you with my wand for what you've done. Running off and leaving me, letting me think you were dead."

Glinda stumbled over her words, tears choked at the back of her throat.

"Oh for Oz' sake!"

Glinda gasped. A muffled, exasperated voice rang out, and then the ground shook.

Glinda shrieked, throwing her hands in the air and grabbing desperately at the floor for purchase.

The voice had just a touch of quickly evaporating patience about it. "Glinda dearest, please move at least two feet to your left."

Glinda scooted.

The trapdoor in the floor opened and slowly, (as if now the speaker had remembered they might have reason for caution), a figure emerged.

"Elphaba!"

Glinda threw herself forward, burying her face in the familiar green shoulder. Elphaba was the picture of guilt and defiance. Glinda raised her head, tears on her cheeks.

She drew back, and then let loose an almighty slap. This time, Elphaba didn't laugh, wincing and rubbing her jaw.

"Have you been practicing that, Glinda dear? It was considerably harder than your last one."

"You…you witch! How could you do this to me!"

Elphaba smiled weakly.

"It wasn't meant to be like this." She muttered after a few seconds. "I thought you'd be safer, not knowing. So I waited till you...stopped…and then left. Fiyero waited for me in the woods to the south. He's afraid now, of fire and of people. He remembers the pole, the crows perching on him…I realized I'd forgot my hat, the one you gave me."

Her voice grew rougher. "I had to get it. Then I heard you…it was either come up and face the music or rot of guilt in a damp hole in the ground."

Her voice still rough, Elphaba looked up from the floor she'd been studying so assiduously.

"So I chose music."

"Guilt. So you should have felt." Glinda retorted with satisfaction, "Thinking you could trick me with such an obvious sham. Running off with Fiyero…" here she trailed off. "Where is he?"

"He's headed for the Deep Vinkus. His guards would have gone there once he 'died' to wait for one of his sons to reach maturity. He didn't want me to come back." Her face was a mask, but the sarcasm imbedded in her last few words indicated more than expressions could.

"You should keep him close, he has a tendency to stray" Glinda sniped.

Elphaba grimaced. "I thought we settled this already."

"That was before you faked your own death to live happily ever after with him!" Glinda shrieked.

The two girls settled into a familiar pattern, endless, pointless arguments. Glinda realized they were somewhat off track only when she started berating the green girl for knocking over the cold cream on her dresser, more than three years ago.

With an effort, she calmed herself. "What are you going to do now?"

Elphaba's face was strained and pale. "Swear you to secrecy, and continue with my plan. See what lies outside the borders of Oz."

Glinda felt faint. "You're not leaving me again Elphaba Thropp, so don't ever say so! I'm not letting you out of my sight for the rest of our lives!"

Elphie grinned, relief flooding her. She'd said no once before, and it had nearly crushed the witch.

"Well that's told me, hasn't it? Running off with Fiyero and I are you? Giving up Emerald City high life for some kind of ménage à trios?

Glinda pouted. A wicked smile crossed her fair face.

"Actually, I have no intention of including Fiyero in any potential...Ménage."

The Witch of the West gasped, struck with a coughing fit.

Glinda the Good smiled dazzlingly.

The two women turned, headed for the very top of the tower, where a small wooden platform rose out into the cooling evening air.

"If you come with me, Glinda, I don't know if we'll ever come back. This is it." Elphaba warned- her face in shadow.

Glinda reached out, placing delicate fingers on the witch's pointy chin and turning Elphaba to face her.

"For Good," she whispered, hands tracing the witch's collarbone and up into her thick dark hair.

Elphaba nodded, straightening up as if a weight had been lifted from her shoulders.

"For Good."


End file.
